Career Options

[Rbaker]

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. In case any of you are wondering, the friend I asked you all to pray for because of his brain surgery is doing well (Not out of the woods yet obviously, but he survived).

Anyway, I am basically just looking for some advice when choosing a college major. I am sort of a perfectionist, so I am trying to cover all my bases, but I am starting to realize I need to take some risks. So I recently declared myself a business major, (not business management) and I am looking into the fields of Computer Information systems or accounting. However, I am not sure if that is really what I want to do.

To be honest, I think that I have 2 main options that I am considering, being a teacher or a journalist. So my thinking is, that if I obtain a business degree in CIS or acct. then I would have something to fall back on if teaching or journalism fails financially.

I have sort of thought about majoring in communication, but it seems that many people say this not a good major, because you can still land a job in a comm career without that degree.

I was just wondering if you all had any suggestions because I really value opinions of those without any bias, especially those with good moral standing.

God Bless

 

[Musicmedic]

Don’t put so much pressure on yourself when deciding a career. I started college declaring a special education major, only to realize teaching wouldn’t be for me. I switched majors to Journalism with a minor in Spanish. I spent 3 years in college taking classes I was bored with, no challenge to become better, etc. I ended up dropping out of college and going through EMT school instead and am now a Paramedic. Intense training, constantly challenged, and pretty much taking classes through work that I enjoy (advanced airways (i.e. we can place surgical airways), we are able to do a variation of a chest tube if your lung collapses, etc)

If you are determined to go through college, declare your major as undecided. Take the general education requirements and classes that intrigue you (these classes could be used towards the gen ed requirements) and who knows, you may end up deciding on something you never expected to do, just like I never expected to be a medic.

 

[ClearWater]

Hi everyone, I hope you are doing well. In case any of you are wondering, the friend I asked you all to pray for because of his brain surgery is doing well (Not out of the woods yet obviously, but he survived).

Anyway, I am basically just looking for some advice when choosing a college major. I am sort of a perfectionist, so I am trying to cover all my bases, but I am starting to realize I need to take some risks. So I recently declared myself a business major, (not business management) and I am looking into the fields of Computer Information systems or accounting. However, I am not sure if that is really what I want to do.

To be honest, I think that I have 2 main options that I am considering, being a teacher or a journalist. So my thinking is, that if I obtain a business degree in CIS or acct. then I would have something to fall back on if teaching or journalism fails financially.

I have sort of thought about majoring in communication, but it seems that many people say this not a good major, because you can still land a job in a comm career without that degree.

I was just wondering if you all had any suggestions because I really value opinions of those without any bias, especially those with good moral standing.

God Bless

You college should have a Career Counseling office where they can do interest and aptitude testing which might help you narrow your search.

Insofar as majors go, another option would be to consider a dual major or minor. It would take more time and money, but it is an alternative.

The career counselor should be able to tell you the outlook projection for each field.

 

[Bonnie]

Don’t put so much pressure on yourself when deciding a career.

Agree. My son “wasted” a year thinking he wanted to major in accounting, then switched to computer science - which he loves.

You can always change your mind - even after school. I remember reading somewhere that very few people end up in the careers they got their degrees in. But the degree isn’t wasted. You’ve studied & learned, and much of what you learn can be adapted to other fields.

 

[tawny]

Praying to the Holy Spirit to give you guidance & direction in your career discernment.
Praying for the continued health & recovery of your friend.

 

[ClearWater]

Can you talk to people already in the professions you’re interested?

Try to think about what you LOVE to do, what you are passionate about.

 

[SecretGarden]

I think you should seek some career counselling in hopes that will help you to narrow your focus.

Furthermore, I know at least up here in Canada it is possible to do a double major in two programs. Which means you can depending on the university and program, study two programs at once.

Generally if you study one major, at the undergraduate level bachelors degree, you will take X many courses that are designated for your program and then Y many courses that are seen as electives or courses which are not part of your program. Generally they are outside your field of study. The number of courses and credits varies according to the program and the college you select.

When you do two majors, you don’t have electives. Instead you have two sets of courses which are designed specificallly for your two programs. Depending on the majors you decide, it might be tricky and it might take some creative micromanaging or organizing of your schedule to arrange to do both.

In addition, since you are taking two majors, depending on the programs, it might lengthen your time in college because some semesters you might have to take fewer courses due to the level of difficulty, the availability of the required courses, or the demands of the programs in general. Many programs the fields you mentioned also have internship components which are important because they give you some hands on job training.

Studying two majors isn’t easy. Trust me. I did it. I actually did two majors and a minor for my undergraduate degree. It wasn’t easy but it was worth it in the end.

I got to know my academic advisers really well and it was a challenge to work with the two advisers from the two programs but somehow God made it work.

 

[SecretGarden]

Furthermore, since you have many ideas in what you would like to do, have you thought about contacting some companies that are in your desired fields and ask if you can shadow some professionals for a few days? That way, you will have a clear idea of what you would and would not like to do.

If you are still in high school, sometimes this can be arranged through the guidance centre at your school. If not, you can contact your local unemployment centre and ask if they can help you organize something. You can also do the leg work yourself. Just make sure when you shadow the professionals, you are dressed properly, which means proper buisness attire. If they like you, you might be able to get an unpaid internship or maybe a part time job.

I hope this helps,

SG

 

[Yeoman]

I feel for you, and indeed for everyone going through the agony of trying to determine what to do as a career. It’s so hard to know what to do, so many people will give you advice, and so much of that advice is conflicting.

I won’t give you any advice, but what I will note is that when I was starting to struggle with that myself in my last year of high school, my father gave me one bit of advice regarding an outdoor career degree that I was going to pursue. He recommended against it, as a lot of people in my area had that degree and they were not working in their field. I listened to him. He very rarely gave that sort of advice.

Oh, how I wish I hadn’t. I pursued a degree in one of the physical sciences only to have that field go bust, and out of a concern for future employable I went into law. Every career decision that I made after that first bit of advice over 30 years ago was horribly wrong and I’ve paid for it ever since.

I don’t know what that tells you, but what I will tell you is that I never prayed about career decisions, ever, until I had a career. That was a bit late.

 

[tvknight415]

I’ve been in the television/radio industry for 15 years. I’ve been a news reporter, control room operator, traffic manager (ad scheduling, not how long your morning commute will be), and advertising planning (research). I’ve been in commercial, public, and religious broadcasting, as well as cable, from market 80 to 132. Here’s a few thoughts, but feel free to PM me on more specifics.

A comm degree isn’t required. If you want to do journalism, experience with your college newspaper will be more critical than what your diploma says. But, I’d consider getting a journalism minor to have some academic background.

Getting started in journalism can be tough. Typically you start in a smaller market, with really low pay, to build your portfolio. Then, you look to move to a larger market. Pay is generally proportional to market size-small markets don’t get the same advertising revenues as large because the ads reach fewer people. If you’re on the morning show, your alarm is going off by 3 AM. You will work weekends and a lot of your stories will be on stuff you might care less about ( I hated covering city council meetings and court). Im not trying to scare you-just making sure you realize it won’t be “glory” too often.

There are a lot of rewarding careers in media that aren’t journalism. Research, production, engineering, sales. Some areas can be quite lucrative, subject to the guideline on market size. Ultimately because of lower pay, you have to have that passion for the industry to offset lower financial reward. But if you have the passion, you’ll find your happy place even if an annual trip to Disneyland isn’t doable. Case in point, my control room supervisor was a licensed attorney. She could certainly make a boatload more doing law, but she found her happy place.

Again, if you have specific industry quesions feel free to PM me.